* Both targeted in Tehran by men riding motorbikes
* Local media blames Israel for assassination attempts

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed and another injured in separate attacks in Tehran today.

The scientists were targeted in two different locations by men riding motorcycles who attached bombs to their car windows as they drove to work.

One device killed Dr Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Tehran University, and wounded his wife.

The second blast seriously wounded nuclear physicist Dr Fereidoun Abbasi. His wife was also injured.

Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Dr Shahriari was involved in a major project at the country’s chief nuclear agency, though he did not give specifics.

State television swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks.

At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years in what Iran has alleged is part of a covert attempt by the West to damage its controversial nuclear program.

Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Dr Shahriari was involved in a major project at the country’s chief nuclear agency, though he did not give specifics.

State television swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks.

At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years in what Iran has alleged is part of a covert attempt by the West to damage its controversial nuclear program.

Washington has strongly denied allegations of links to previous attacks. There are several active armed groups that oppose Iran’s ruling clerics, but it’s unclear whether they could have carried out the apparently coordinated bombings in the capital.

Most anti-government violence in recent years has been isolated to Iran’s provinces such as the border with Pakistan where Sunni rebels are active and the western mountains near Iraq where Kurdish separatists operate.

The assailants, who escaped, drove by their targets on motorcycles and attached the bombs as the cars were moving. They exploded shortly thereafter, state television reported.

Dr Shahriari, the scientist who was killed, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. His wife, who was in the car with him, was wounded.

Dr Salehi, the nuclear chief who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said Shahriari was one of his students and his death was a big loss.

He said: ‘Shahriari had good cooperation with the AEOI. He was involved in one of the big AEOI projects which is a source of pride for the Iranian nation.’

He didn’t provide any details on the project. But the AEOI is involved in Iran’s uranium enrichment program.

Dr Salehi added: ‘The enemy took our dearest flower, but must know that this nation, through resistance and all its might, will make efforts to remove problems and achieve its desires.’

A second, separate attack in the capital Tehran wounded nuclear physicist Dr Abbasi. His wife was also in the car with him, and she was also wounded.

A pro-government website, mashreghnews.ir, said Abbasi held a PhD in nuclear physics and was a laser expert at Iran’s Defence Ministry and one of few top Iranian specialists in nuclear isotope separation.

Isotope separation is the process of concentrating specific isotopes of a chemical element by removing other isotopes, for example separating natural uranium from enriched uranium. This is a crucial process in the manufacture of uranium fuel for nuclear power stations, and is also required for the creation of uranium-based nuclear weapons.

The site said Abbasi has long been a member of the Revolutionary Guard, the country’s most powerful military force. It said he was also a lecturer at Imam Hossein University, affiliated to the Guard.

The attacks bore close similarities to another in January that killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.

In 2007, state television reported that nuclear scientist Ardeshir Hosseinpour died from gas poisoning. A one-week delay in the reporting of his death prompted speculation about the cause, including that Israel’s Mossad spy agency was to blame.

Iran has continued to portray its nuclear program as being under constant pressure from the West and its allies. These include alleged abductions of nuclear officials and, more recently, a computer worm known as Stuxnet that experts say was calibrated to destroy uranium-enrichment centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control. Iran says its experts stopped Stuxnet from affecting systems at its nuclear facilities.

The latest attacks come a day after the release of internal State Department cables by the whistle-blower website Wikileaks, including several that vividly detail Arab fears over Iran’s nuclear program and its growing political ambitions in the region.

Arab worries over Iran often have been expressed in public in careful, diplomatic language by officials in the Gulf and elsewhere.

The messages obtained by Wikileaks, however, appear to reflect the urgency of the concerns and the impression that a U.S.-led attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be welcomed by some leaders of Arab nations in the Middle East, especially the oil-rich states that neighbor Iran in the Persian Gulf.

There is a possibility that some of these actions are coming from within Iran. The general population aren’t exactly pleased or satisfied with their current form of government. Whoever is behind these actions I applaud them.

So…Yes! Absolutely!—Iran has and still is attacking the United States of America.

However, I don’t hold you personally responsible for such actions as I have several friends in Iran who would never condone such bestial actions. No, I hold your insanely barbaric and truculent theocratic government responsible.

BTW – The U.S. DID NOT kill your nuclear scientists! Obama is way too much of an ideological pussy to do anything like that. If I were you, I’d check with Israel—they seem to be the only ones with any balls still left intact.

Yeah, and that death to America stuff is wearing really thin too. Message to ordinary Iranian people, we the US people are not political idiots. We believe people when they threaten to wipe us out, time after time after time.

Of course I don’t really get the panic over Iranian nukes. The democrats sat down with the Norks and drank Champagne, they have been aware of this homicidal chimp in Iran for some time now. Enemy nukes and the USSA, sheez, the democrats are worse than any hydrogen bomb, they have even installed president splody dope to lead us down the road to annihilation.

I do believe that events have already been set in motion, events that it is too late to control. I mean, as will happen, we crossed the point of no return. And really, when we get down to the heart of the matter, who really cares about the USSA anyway? Live free or die, think about it, especially in light of the recent, err, disclosures.